Ramin Bahrani Quotations

The movie is about a guy on the corner of the street who no one wants to pay attention to. I hope you will indulge me in paying attention to him for a little while.

I put it in Fed Ex and just sent it there. I really didn't have the kinds of connections that you hear about. It only took two weeks between Fed Ex and getting a response I remember them being the most depressing weeks of my life. I didn't think anyone would want to watch the film.

So much can be learned by any filmmaker by studying his work, in terms of blocking, staging, editing and sound.

Since Hollywood seems to be more interested in people wearing tights and using powers, there seems to be a fertile ground for movies about real human beings.

Most of the projects aren't that interesting anymore. There used to be a day when the studios made amazing films, and they were about human beings.

The people who run the major banks have MBAs and wear suits. And when those people in suits come to the homes of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't even speak English, and offer them a home at zero percent down, that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

The actors come and you start seeing things happen for real.

I like to give the actors the freedom, and they know they have the freedom, to change anything they want at any time.

You have to let life come and go.

We're living in a time period where if a kid is on a plastic scooter that's one inch off the ground, mom and dad think he should have a helmet on. I don't think they should have a helmet on. They should break their leg and have an imagination. Otherwise, we're going to have a nation of accountants.

Sometimes we have dreams, but we just can't make them. That's normal.

I never say "Action" or "Cut." Never. I think that would disturb the life from happening in and around everything.

The job of the writer and the filmmaker is not to impose his vision on the reality, but to be inspired by the reality and create a vision out of that.

We're living in a world that says that if you engage in mass fraud, you'll be rewarded, but if you go down the street and steal an orange juice, you get arrested.